Could you take a look at some of the categories which list hundreds or thousands of objects for sale and there is such a variety it takes too long to search. If they were split up more it would be a lot easier on the eyesight! And time! For instance in "crochet" this could be split up with, for instance, "doilies" "bags" "clothing" "toys", etc., all coming under "crochet" of course. It would help in the comparisons in order to choose if they were close to each other.

Thank you all for the comments so far. Your feedback has been noted and we'll be blogging about / announcing the category changes this week.

I don't like the idea of baby items being moved into Home and Garden, I agree with Elizabeth who said

it should stay on the front but renamed? from my experience of searching for these items on many sites I never expect them to be under home and garden as I am not looking for something for the home or garden but for a baby.

Sorry - could we also have gemstone as tag for jewellery? You have "stone" but that could be anything so "precious gemstone" or "semi-precious gemstone" would be great.

As a jeweller I would like to see a distinction between sterling silver and silver plate in the materials as many people seem to use the "silver" tag for silver plate (or gold plate/gold filled) but I (like a lot of people) am very sensitive to metals so can only wear sterling silver (or other pure metals). Also I couldn't see a category for platinum.

I would also like to see the necklace category changed to "necklaces and pendants" and brooches included as jewellery (I make sterling silver brooches).

Thank you for the opportunity to feed back thoug, it is much appreciated.

Hi, I think that clay or ceramic should be a category under 'jewellery'. In the proposed changes there would just be an option for 'polymer clay' then 'everything else' which I think is unfair when other materials are featured eg glass. Also,living room should be an option in 'shop by room'. Thank you, Beverley

I agree for originals being separate from reproduction prints in art. However, you need to be careful. I am a lino printer and my 'prints' are original, often one off, pieces.

Having separate sub categories in art for originals and prints would be great.
Further distinctions could be made -scenic, animals, people, abstract, decorative, or by skill, collage, mixed media, painting, textile. There will be other categories and I think this area needs some more consideration and thought.

Re art, I would like originals to be separated from prints. Apart from that and the fact that it is referring to a painting against collage etc I would be happy for art/paintings to be together. I have sometimes done a landscape with a lot of sea and not known whether to class it as seascape, nautical or landscape, so I think that having too many categories would be confusing.
Obviously as someone who specialises in aceos I would like aceos and larger paintings to be separate.

for Art and Photography, I would definately like to see prints
for Jewellery ( necklaces and bracelets ) I would like to see the sub category addition of artwork
because we are seeing more hand painted / hand drawn items incorporated into jewellery

Categorising Art

I think landscape/portrait/still life/figurative would be unnecessary and confusing. For example does landscape mean paper orientation or a painting of land?

For Joe Public, I would suggest categories of <original art> <prints> <ACEO> <photographs> and subcategories of <animals> <people> <abstract> <views> <flowers> <buildings> <still life> <sport> <surreal> <other>

When I'm browsing art I don't set out looking for a particular medium so don't think watercolour/oil/acrylic is needed as a category - and I think sellers use the medium in the title anyway? I know I do.

With regards to how to categorise Art, Prints should have its own section in the same column as paintings. Prints could then have more indepth sub categories such as, digital, drypoint, giclee. I do not think people will think ooohhhh I need a landscape this is too narrow a search. So when choosing painting category further subcategories could be chosen from such as media used, watercolour, acrylic, oil etc. or style of work such as abstract, surreal, still life. This would give paintings more chance of being seen and catching someones eye.

Thanks for all the feedback so far. There are some helpful suggestions re: cuffs and brooches particularly.

As regards keywords - we did away with keywords for lots of good reasons. Whilst some people may see a correlation between change in sales and keywords going we don't believe (from the data) that it made any significant impact on sales. We are looking are bringing back better ways to navigate around the site though so this will help discovery of new things.

Please keep the suggestions coming.

Hi there James et al. Thanks for the opportunity to comment on these changes.

Cuff links and brooches should be in the jewellery section (seems odd that they have been moved).

What are Cuffs? Are you referring to bracelet type cuffs? This should be in a category called bracelets/bangles/cuffs and not in a separate one. "Cuffs" may also fall into the accessory category.

It also seems odd that there is no Men's jewellery section. Would seem better to have women's/men's jewellery under the main jewellery category and then types of jewellery filtered down from there.

Sterling silver would be a useful material category, as would copper although I guess I could live with metal.

Thank you!

I would prefer brooches to be in the jewellery category and for the rings category to have Polymer clay as an option intead of just all.

I think it is almost impossible to find anything without tags and don't understand why these are no longer used.

Since when are brooches not jewellery, ? As someones whose output consists mainly of brooches I am worried that they wont be found under accessories, it would never occur to me to look there. A quick look at the obvious Folksy rivals and brooches are under jewellery , and on one under accessories as well.
And still no pendants , there are some of us making pendants from "raw materials" and selling them without a chain so necklaces doesnt really cover the description.
Also I think cuffs and bracelets should be in the same basic category., where is the dividing line between a cuff and a bangle for example?

Further to James' response, please could you consider the following:
There doesn't seem to be anything under the 'cuff' section to adequately cover items such as pearl and crystal cuffs. Also, it might be useful to put an 'occasion jewellery' section to help people who are looking for special items either for themselves or to give as gifts under the jewellery category. Potential customers will not want to look under everything, nor will they probably think to look at the 'Wedding' category as this isn't where they need to be!

I also agree that I would love an easier way of listing certain items under multiple categories. Waiting for the whole of the listing to be copied seems long winded, and not only that but the duplicated information clogs up my shop and I would suspect your server memory too! Please think of a more stream-lined approach to allowing us sellers the opportunity to expand into additional categories more easily!

Can't you just bring back keywords as well as have the category reorganisation? Please? Pretty please? My shop has all but died this year and I don't seem to be doing anything differently than before.

Flora.

The Jewellery section is a very good idea.
I like that you have made that many subcategories - this makes it a lot easier for buyers.

However from a sellers point of view Nicky has a good point. It would be great if we could choose 3-4 subcategories for our items to allow them to be found in all relevant places.

For example I've got:
Wire wrapped dangle metal earrings with stones and
crochet beadwork necklaces with charms and locket pendant
Hard to decide on only one category for them.

I agree with Tracy: Copper is a good category as is enamel.

Lastly would like to suggest Crochet and Macrame under bracelets and anklets. "Textile" doesn't quite seem to cover it.

Simple, a category for fine art prints please, for reasons outlined in my comments on the blog. Ta.